Unleash the rust-busters

GENETICALLY engineered bacteria may soon roam power plants to battle rust by gobbling up oxygen and attacking corrosive organisms.

Damage from corrosion annually costs the steam-generating power industry billions in the US alone. Constant moisture makes the metal surfaces of pipes and tanks develop "biofilms" of bacteria that look like a black discoloration, says Barry Syrett of Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California. Some kinds of bacteria reduce sulphates to sulphides that corrode metals.

Syrett and his colleagues announced this month that aerobic bacteria such as Pseudomonas fragi can protect metal surfaces in the lab. The bacteria not only use up oxygen and prevent rust but also inhibit the growth of sulphate-reducing organisms. But some harmful bacteria, such as Desulfovibrio vulgaris, could still creep under the protective biofilm. So the researchers plan to genetically alter aerobic bacteria to make them release more natural antimicrobial peptides.

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